Application interface prototype development
Development of application prototypes is a crucial process in big, commercial application development allowing user testing before full development.
Overview
Flexewebs pride themselves on their vision and expertise for developing extremely high quality web applications and web sites in general.
Web applications in today's world need to take into consideration many multi-disciplinary aspects, all of which are often conceptually proven through some form of prototype development.
Our interface prototypes are usually developed using XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS 2.0, JavaScript and any combination of XSLT, XML 1.0, AJAX and other technologies required.
Benefits
- Quickly gather requirements based on 'live' wire frames
- Troubleshoot usability and accessibility issues early on, reducing costs and time to market
- Offer ability to key stakeholders to see the real solution and involve themselves early on
- Involve users from the very start, achieving a real UCD approach to system development
- Understand the limitations and potential additional benefits of your application immediately
- Estimate software development times and resources more accurately based on a proper insight
- Communicate with all the stakeholders in development process pratically
- Capture requirements in the most appropriate manner for larger projects
Our approach
Flexewebs are very flexible in their approach to development of prototypes in order to suit client's needs to the greatest extent possible.
Over the years we have developed our unique approach to development of prototypes.
We use dynamic web technologies in order to aid the rapid development of prototypes and as quick a delivery of XHTML/CSS/JavaScript code to the end client.
All our prototypes contain the following features:
- Entirely clickable, offering complete insight into all user journeys which require fulfilling by the application
- Well structured, offering extremely useful insight into the candidate Information Architecture of the end solution to be developed. This is a high value-adding side-effect of our structured and consistent approach
- Flexewebs are also able to tweak the almost finished prototype easily for consistency purposes ensuring that components and objects shared across many pages are all the same in look and feel. This helps usability and accessibility testers properly work out the likely strengths and shortcomings of the future application
- Clean code solution, which is usually ready for shipping as the code quality is standards compliant and built to the highest standards and guidelines
Case study - Tesco.com
Our most significant work which involved prototype development was on Tesco.com Grocery shopping web site, the largest and world's leading grocery shopping system in the world.
Through combination of Scrum and iterative design, we have helped Tesco.com develop a cutting edge solution for at least next ten years.
The prototype solution involved developing the most complex Web 2.0 Grocery Shopping e-commerce application in the world, including all the bells and whistles of AJAX, JavaScript and next generation desktop-like human-computer interaction.
The whole implementation had to meet AAA or at least AA accessibility requirements and be RNIB compliant.
This is probably the only Web 2.0 application in the world which can seriously claim to have managed to implement Web 2.0 style behaviour along with practical accessibility and true W3C standards compliance.
Prototype building was at the core of development of Tesco's grocery shopping solution and has helped the business practically understand what their customers really want from their online experience.
We are really proud to have been involved in this project and are even more proud to be able to offer a top quality prototype development service to our future clients.